Online assessment for residential care referral is reliable

24 Aug 2017

Online geriatric assessments are as reliable as face-to-face decisions when geriatricians consider the suitability of residential care for older hospital patients, a study has found.

Researchers at The University of Queensland tested whether decisions made by geriatricians based on a structured online assessment - using data collected in person by a trained nurse - were any less reliable than face-to-face decisions.

“This outcome shows that if there is good preparation of the clinical case a geriatrician can make decisions online, without seeing the person, as accurately as conventional in-person consultations,” Dr Martin-Khan said.

“Nurses are trained to collect case information from patients and to work in collaboration with families and other medical staff - they play a key role in this process.

“Nurses, along with the sophisticated assessment system, may have helped to close the gap between agreement with the online assessment and face-to-face decisions.”

“Even in city practice where geriatricians are in short supply this consultation method could make reliable assessments available for more patients, without increasing healthcare costs,” Dr Martin-Khan said.